Flashlightaholoic Advice Needed - LED Runtime

Fellow lightaholics -I say that as I am not quite a flashlightaholic, but close. My addiction is Coleman lanterns. Laughing matter to a lot of folks, but perhaps a few of you may understand.

Anyway, my brother recently got me a USB rechargeable penlight. It is AWESOME. Didn't even realize such a gizmo existed. Now, I'm done replacing alkaline batteries...and I don't have to screw with recharging batteries by removing them, charging them and replacing the -too much hassle. Thus, I now need a high power flashlight...

I have looked at the ANSI FL1 standard and after some scratching my head, finally learned that those are about meaningless without the MUCH more useful runtime graphs. It seems that the brightness of many LED flashlights drops rapidly and substantially. The two that I find which seem to maintain respectable brightness are the Streamlight Protac HL USB and some of the Led Lenser (that have the constant current mode). Does this seem to fall in line with what you guys have found?

For reference, I have compared the Fenix UC35, UC30; Nitecore MH10, MH12, Pelican 7100, 7600, 2380R; Streamlight Protac HL USB and Led Lenser M7R. Also, I am not as interested in the burn your eyes out 1,000 lumen monsters as I am a consistent 300-400 lumen light that can hold that for an hour or so.

Will

51stovebolt said:

I have looked at the ANSI FL1 standard and after some scratching my head, finally learned that those are about meaningless without the MUCH more useful runtime graphs.
...
a consistent 300-400 lumen light that can hold that for an hour or so.

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runtime graphs are useful too, but imo, you can make some general assumptions to narrow your criteria

your question is basically a "recommend me a light" post. So far the criteria you have expressed is just that you want 400 lumens for 1 hour, and you want to be able to recharge the light without taking out the battery.

An Olight S1R meets those criteria. but it has PWM, and is also Low CRI
#35

gopajti said:

- pwm effect in lowest (moonlight mode)

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you can also get a lot of perspective by reading selfbuilt reviews.. his page is here and lists many different lights, and he also makes some recommendations

I encourage you to add is the color quality of the LED.. referred to as CRI, to your criteria. The easiest way to meet that requirement is to buy a light that has a Nichia 219 LED in it.

My signature posts have a lot of photos explaining CRI. imo you should add a PWM criteria, that is, try to find lights that do not use it..

enjoy your research.. come back with a couple candidates that meet your criteria, bring links to specific models, and we will try to help compare and contrast them with your needs in mind

ps, plan on carrying a spare battery, that is a good way to stop worrying about runtime

Some of those 1000 lumen lights run at 300-400 lumen mode 3-4 hours